The Source of Social Constitutionalism in China: Opium War
The Opium War not only revealed the conflict between the typical modern social system and the traditional social system, but also opened the prelude to the conflict between the eastern and western civilization systems in China. It was in the collision of two great civilizations that China began the process of constitutionalism with difficulty.
Lin Zexu was the first person to see the world through China's eyes. He compiled some information about the American political system in the Chronicle of Four Continents: "The important affairs of the monarch, foreign relations and the relationship between combatants are all decided by the parliament. If there are different opinions, the three are the second. If you are promoted to civil and military officials, you must seek peace and harmony. "
Although these introductions are too simple, they have touched on some core things of modern western constitutional system: parliamentary system, minority obeying the majority, and term system of heads of state. Wei Yuan's Atlas of the Sea was compiled on the basis of Lin Zexu's Annals of Sizhou, which recorded the western democratic constitutional system in more detail than the Annals of Sizhou.
This book has covered the status of parliament, the relationship between parliament and king, the relationship between parliament, king and officials at all levels, and the rights boundary between parliament and king. Regarding the United States, the author expressed his yearning for the American constitutional system.
The Opium War made some advanced people in China, such as Lin Zexu and Wei Yuan, begin to give up the illusion of "nationalizing China" and start to look at the world with wide eyes. In the communication with westerners, they came into contact with the advanced western constitutional system and wrote books to introduce it, which laid the foundation for further understanding the western constitutional system.